US Airways Dividend Miles - FYI PHL will not pull a bag for you during IROPS

Hi All,

On Haloween I was returning from LAS on a crazy (but cheap) itenerary LAS-MSP-PHL-ABE. The problem was when I arrived in PHL (Note: we were delayed leaving MSP due to weather and then ATC issues). When I arrived at PHL my flight to ABE was cancelled and there was nothing until 1:40 PM the next day. I now live in the PHL area but I often travel out of ABE or MDT as many times I get cheaper flights and there is much less hassle with traffic, security lines, and PHL in general. 1:40 PM the next day was not an option as Mrs. Buffaloflyer is having a Baby Buffaloflyer and her shower was the next day at 12:30.

So I cancelled the rest of my itnerary to ABE and got a car service to take us home. I went to the world famous PHL baggage office to get my bags and they flatly refused to return them to me. They said that during IROPS they refuse to pull a bag and that it will have to fly to ABE the next day, and when I don't pick it up they will fly it back to PHL and have it delivered to me since my flight was cancelled. I explained how this was not logical and how it was a waste of time money and precious fuel and they agreed but they said that they must follow policy.

I finally gave in as I was tired and didnt want to deal with them anymore. The best part comes next though, somehow between ABE and PHL they LOST 1 of my bags, (thoe one that had Mrs. Buffaloflyer's matenity clothes. Eventually the central baggae office at the Sandcastle got involved and gave PHL and ABE a good talking to and they somehow came up with our bag after 5 days. (Whew....)

So just be aware of the danger if you happen to cancel the rest of your itnerary at PHL you could be in for some fun :rolleyes:

In most any case, if you're flying with a connection and you check your bag, you should assume that you will not be able to get to your bag until it gets to it's tagged destination. This is probably the case even if someone at the gate or onboard your flight tells you otherwise. I'm not certain how much is policy and how much is practicality (the PHL baggage system does hold and process a huge number of bags so finding one bag would be a chore), but that seems to be the way it is on a number of airlines.

It's the same if you're making a connection and for some reason your connection is missed or canceled and you're forced to stay overnight. It's happened to me a number of times on US and UA, and in all cases the final result from the baggage was that I could not get access to my checked bag for toiletries and clean clothes. If I'm making a connection, particularly to the last flight of the day, I now always carry a change of clothes and set of toiletries in my carry-on just in case.

Anytime I have been stuck somewhere overnight unplanned - missed connection, mechanical, weather etc - I have never been able to get access to my bag. I don't even ask anymore. And, it's not just US - but I've experienced it also on DL and AA.

In this case, if you made it clear to them that you were not waiting a day to travel an additional 100 miles and instead would absolutely NOT be getting on the plane, don't they have to remove it? I thought TSA required passengers match bags down below.....

Sometimes the fine ladies in the club can get them to pull a bag. Normally they just won't do it.

In this case, if you made it clear to them that you were not waiting a day to travel an additional 100 miles and instead would absolutely NOT be getting on the plane, don't they have to remove it? I thought TSA required passengers match bags down below.....

That's not a requirement at all, at least not domestically. Internationally I'm not sure, though I know it's at least policy in some countries and/or airlines - if a passenger isn't aboard, the bags get pulled. But domestically in US they couldn't care less - otherwise bags wouldn't end up on wrong planes in wrong cities so often.

Sometimes the fine ladies in the club can get them to pull a bag. Normally they just won't do it.

I tried that, and had no luck, they said the baggage office would take care of that for me.

In this case, if you made it clear to them that you were not waiting a day to travel an additional 100 miles and instead would absolutely NOT be getting on the plane, don't they have to remove it? I thought TSA required passengers match bags down below.....

As ArizonaGuy said, positive bag match is no longer required in the U.S. From what I could find, it was put into place for a while back in 2002, but then was no longer required after the end 2002 provided that technology-based screening systems were used for all checked bags. It seems the airlines made a big stink about the cost of doing the bag match and of removing bags of passengers who didn't show up for their flight on time.

The last time I connected in ATL, DL was making announcements over the PA saying they wouldn't even pull bags for *cancelled* flights.

I tried that, and had no luck, they said the baggage office would take care of that for me.

It seems like most of the time I've got them to do it, it was just my flight that was bad. If the whole airport is in a bad way, they may well just be too busy to do it. I don't really think you can complain about that, although it is reasonable to expect them to do a better job of recovering your bag and getting it to you afterwards.

Folks 3 word answer on the pulling bags no matter what airline:
Lack of staff.